Perfect Pairings & Recipes for
Mashed Potato

Analysing hundreds of thousands of recipes uncovers mashed potato's optimal flavour pairings.

Starchy aroma and starchy notes are at the forefront of mashed potato's flavour profile, but identifying its perfect partner requires exploring its subtle nuances. We must examine the complex interplay of notes within its bouquet, like butter, lactic acid, and hints of milk. We need to understand how these notes affect each other and which complementary flavors they harmonise with.

To chart these harmonies, we analysed thousands of ingredients, each deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, pinpointing the notes that best complement this ingredient’s profile. Our analysis reveals, for example, how dark chocolate's cocoa tones awaken mashed potato, and how spinach's cis-3-hexen-1-ol notes create a surprising synergy with its starchy aroma.

An ingredient's flavour profile is determined by its core characteristics (e.g. earthy, vegetal, and maillard) enhanced by layers of subtle aroma notes (outer bars). When pairing ingredients, aim for a mix of core traits to build balance, and select complementary aroma notes to create harmony.

Unlocking Flavour Combinations

To understand how flavour notes harmonise, we analysed more than 50,000 popular ingredient combinations. By exploring these pairings, we identified specific flavour notes that frequently occur together, indicating they share a harmonious relationship.

The Flavours That Harmonise With Potato Notes

Our analysis shows that the flavour of potato is strongly associated with the flavour of spinach. This suggests we should look for ingredients with a spinachy flavour, such as spinach, when pairing with the potatoey aroma notes of mashed potato.

The recipe below provides inspiration for pairing mashed potato with spinach.

Harmonious Flavours Of Mashed Potato

Just as our analysis revealed that potato and asparagus flavours are harmonious, we can identify the full profile of flavours that harmonise with each of the notes present in mashed potato. E.g. the starchy notes of mashed potato are often used with lactic acid and peppery accents.

The notes associated with the various aroma notes of mashed potato can be seen highlighted in the pink bars below.

Matching Flavour Profiles

The flavour profile of dark chocolate offers many of the accents complementary to mashed potato, including cocoa and coffee notes. Because the flavour profile of dark chocolate has many of the of the features that are complementary to mashed potato, they are likely to pair very well together.

The chart above shows the unique profile of dark chocolate across 150 dimensions of flavour, while the recipes below offer inspiration for bringing these flavours together with mashed potato.

Recipes That Pair Mashed Potato With Dark Chocolate

Linked Flavour Notes

Looking at the aroma accents that are most strongly associated with the various flavours of mashed potato, we can identify other ingredients that are likely to pair well.

The left side of the chart above highlights the aroma notes of mashed potato, along with the complementary aromas associated with each note. While the right side shows some of the ingredients that share many of the aroma notes complementary to mashed potato.

What To Drink With Mashed Potato

The peppercorn notes in cote rotie make it a perfect pairing with mashed potato. Likewise, the peppercorn flavours in saint-joseph create a match made in heaven. Explore a variety of ingredients below that beautifully complement the unique character of mashed potato below.

Which Vegetables Go With Mashed Potato?

Choose vegetables that enrich its starchiness or enrich its starchy aroma. Greens and rainbow chard offer vibrant, clean counterpoints, their verdant freshness lifting the palate. Kale add a gentle, oniony brightness, while pak choi introduces a sophisticated, anise-tinged elegance.

Alternatively, embrace vegetables that harmonise with mashed potato's sweetness. The addition of tenderstem broccoli, with its subtle brassica notes, can complement the caramel beautifully, while tomato lends a green vegetal notes.

How Flavonomics Works

We've pioneered a unique, data-driven approach to decode the intricate art of flavour pairing. Our goal is to move beyond intuition and uncover the science of why certain ingredients harmonise beautifully. This rigorous methodology allows us to provide you with insightful and reliable pairing recommendations.

Our analysis begins with over 50,000 carefully selected recipes from acclaimed chefs like Galton Blackiston, Marcello Tully, and Pierre Lambinon. This premium dataset ensures our model distils genuine culinary excellence and creativity.

Each ingredient from these recipes is deconstructed across 150 distinct flavour dimensions, creating a unique numerical "flavour fingerprint." This quantification allows us to apply advanced analytical methods to identify complex patterns between flavour notes.

We identify popular ingredient combinations that frequently appear in our recipe database. Regression analysis is then performed on these pairings to statistically validate and pinpoint truly harmonious flavours.

These insights drive our predictive model, which allows us to take any ingredient (e.g., Mashed potato), analyse its detailed flavour profile, and accurately reveal its complementary flavours and perfect ingredient partners.